Monday, 5 November 2012

Ireland Builds Many EV Chargers, But Will EVs Actually Follow?

ESB EV Chargers
The European island nation of Ireland, already big into wind power, looks now to also have a major presence of electric car charging points. This is the word anyhow recently from the Electricity Supply Board (ESB), which is a mostly state owned electric company. The big question though is – will there be enough electric cars being driven to actually make use of them?
ESB said it recently had installed 1000 electric vehicle charging points around Ireland, meaning all counties and 85 percent of major cities and towns there now have access “to EV charging infrastructure.” The utility and its partners aren’t stopping there though, planning for “further charge points throughout the country to include the remainder of towns with populations greater than 1,500.”

 Read the full article here...

Friday, 2 November 2012

Electric Cars, EVs in Ireland

A really excellent article by Anthony analysing the current state of EVs  See the Full Article on Mayglass.com

EVs – Problems and Opportunities

Electric Car
Electric Car

Battery Problems on Electric Cars

The basic problem with electric cars is the battery pack. But the problem is not the range of the battery, nor is the problem the lifetime of the battery. The problem is the cost of the replacement of the battery or failed cells in the battery.
We all know about batteries and electric car batteries will be no different than the other batteries in our life. All too often a live battery soon becomes a dead battery. That is one of the facts of life – it is unavoidable.
We all know about batteries, from bicycle light batteries to phone batteries to laptop batteries with work tool batteries in between. How many of us have perfectly good portable tools whose batteries have expired and are no longer available? Are orphans whose parents are kaput!

Full Article...

1000 Chargepoints Installed in Ireland

read the full article at OffalyExpress.ie

editorial image
ESB has reached a milestone of 1,000 installed electric vehicle (EV) charge points in Ireland including domestic, commercial and public. This means that all counties and 85% of major cities and towns have now access to EV charging infrastructure.
ESB along with key partners will continue to progress this groundbreaking project with the installation of further charge points throughout the country to include the remainder of towns with populations greater than 1,500. This development is in line with the rollout and availability of new Electric Vehicles to complement those already on the market
Dermot McArdle, Manager of ESB ecars said; “ESB is pleased to have 1,000 operational charge-points installed throughout the country and that Ireland is on track to have one of the most advanced electric vehicle’s infrastructure in Europe.
The availability of charge-points are key to the uptake of electric vehicles making them practical alternatives for inter-urban as well as daily commutes”, he said.


Full Article

EVTV Friday Show - October 19, 2012


EVTV Friday Show - October 26, 2012


Friday, 20 July 2012

History of Electric Cars


Renewable Energy in Germany | Fully Charged

Sounds like a great idea. Solar panels on the roof .Energy straight from the universe and into your car.
Россия приветствует читателей!

Monday, 16 July 2012

Friday, 13 July 2012

Ev Conversion Spotlight: The Classic Beetle

Dissatisfied with big industrys here to fore reluctance to get into the electric car game many EV enthusiasts have decided to jump in themselves and convert I.C.E. Cars over to electricity.  

Some models of car have become so popular for conversion that you can even get conversion kits. This takes a lot of pain out of the job.
There are several points you have to take into account when converting a car. Will the car be able to handle the extra weight if there is any. Do you need to upgrade the brake system?
 
Here are a few classic Beetle conversions.

Very informative slideshow from ev4u custom conversion


One of Rebirth Autos many VW beetle conversions

Toyota 2000GT Solar EV

In the summer cars sit out in the car par, doing nothing except absorbing the solar energy and getting hot. In this car the designers though what if we could harness some of that solar energy. Its not enough to run the car. But at least you know your pack is unlikely to run completely to zero. That is a good battery protection feature. They still have to work on the looks though.


Thursday, 12 July 2012

Totally not Ecological Dude

It's nice to see that all all electric car enthusiasts are not green evangelists. Actually I doubt they care, But what Ronaele Mustang have built is one monstrously powerful muscle EV. Wonderfully impractical and totally over the top. Well done lads, I love it. And they have plans for one twice as powerful that should be able to pull 2 horizontal G.

Specs:
Recharge Time: 3.5hrs 220V / 8hrs 110V
0-60: 4 seconds
Range: 110 Miles
Horsepower: 300hp
Battery: K2 Energy Solutions EV Racing Battery System
Motor: Proprietary DC Motor System



Wednesday, 11 July 2012

EVTV

Another Show From Marion and Brian. Batteries being put through the wringer and an EV sit on lawnmower

EV DeLorean REBORN!

The DeLorean Motor Car Company now based in America has made announced a new EV model of the classic DeLorean is now on sale!



An Icon of the 80's and one of the few cars produced In Ireland. It seems doubly fitting that this ev conversion should be featured on the blog.




And if that wasnt enough DeLorean for you here are a few EV album Links. Enjoy....

Suthos 1981 DeLorean
EVE ElectroVehiclesEurope
Dave Delmans DeLorean

If you have a hankering to convert one yourself, heres one for sale.
http://cars.donedeal.ie/for-sale/vintagecars/3613279

Monday, 2 July 2012

Thursday, 28 June 2012

Wednesday, 27 June 2012

Monday, 25 June 2012

Non-EV Reprap 3D printer

Adrian Bowyer has pioneered an open source self replicating 3D printer design.The machine is known as Self Replicating Rapid prototyping machine or RepRap for short. Currently the machine can print about 50% of the parts needed to make a repilica of itself. Amazing stuff, The ability to print any plastic object you need yourself is quite exciting. I wonder what percentage of parts for an ev project you could print. Actually its still early days, but as the project gains wider popularity and the collective genius of the internet sets its mind to it you can be certain this will bear fruit.
Jack and Brian give a great round up of the EV news. They also get a step closer to getting their Behemoth of an ev conversion moving.

Tuesday, 19 June 2012

KillaCycle 0-60 in 0.8 seconds WTF!


Non-Electric WikiSpeed

WikiSpeed is an opensource high performance car design. The plans for the car are going to published and freely available. The car is designed modularly so that the current petrol engine module can be swapped out for an electric drive module at  a future date. The combination of Opensource engineering, electric motors and new battery chemistry is going to revolutionise the motor industry. Joe justice and the project wikispeed are hurtling towards a better future.

The team are doing a croudfunding campaign. If you are in a position to chip in something its a good cause. wikispeed

Sunday, 17 June 2012

Supermen of Limerick Convert their BMW

Damien Mac Namara & Pat Mac Mahon have successfully converted their  1996 BMW 523I. Well done, you're an inspiration. You can read more details on their EV album page HERE

More Ev's burning rubber!

Great.

Saturday, 16 June 2012

Electric Cars Burning Rubber

Another Electric car doing a massive burnout. Electric Street Rod "Lightning Rod II" Doesn't it warm the heart. You can't make disparaging golf cart comments when your jaw is hanging open. :)

EVTV June 15th 2012

Another show from The evtv guys. Its long, but they know their stuff. Also this show has the tesla shareholders presentation. around the halfway mark.

Friday, 15 June 2012

Wednesday, 13 June 2012

Agility Saietta | Fully Charged

Another installment of Robert Llewelly's excellent "Fully Charged". He hits the nail on the head, its not about eco its about the best tech for the job.

Electric Personalities: John Wayland

John's Electric Datsun White Zombie has got heads turning. Heres a feature from Oregan public broadcasting on the maveric ev engineer.

 

Be sure to look at his racing team website. Plasmaboy racing.

Check out the specs plenty of photos and other wacky ev's

http://www.plasmaboyracing.com/

Tuesday, 12 June 2012

Electric Cars Burning Rubber

If you think electric cars are all milk floats and forklifts, think again. have a look at this.
White Zombie A 1972 Datsun converted to be the fastest streetlegal electic car.

 



 1970s Datsun converted to Electric vs a gas guzzling Corvette.

Electric Vehicle Television - EVTV - a weekly video for custom electric car builders and conversions. Each week we review components and techniques you can use to convert any car to clean, quiet, powerful electric drive. EVTV has become THE weekly TV show for conversion shops, University build teams, design engineers, and custom electric car builders worldwide with viewers in 160 countries.

Monday, 11 June 2012

ESB Charging point

Phooey1911 reviews one of the ESB's new charging points. Part of the new electric vehicle infrastructure being built in Ireland.


Hello World, the purpose of this blog is to talk about all things Electric and hybrid Vehicles and in particular what is happening today in Ireland.
The image most commonly associated with electric cars is environmental.Lets be honest most people will pay lip service to supporting the environment but really they couldn't care less.I don't hold it against them. Personally I am quite ambivalent on the subject. But I am very excited about the possibilities of the technology.  People want safe, convenient and cheap cars.  I believe that electric vehicles can be everything we need that and have the added bonus of being green. I'm not interested in greenwashing or eco-guilt tripping. We are at a turning point where the technology has matured enough for Ev's to more than just an interesting tech hobby. 
 The way I like to explain my EV obsession to friends and family is like this. I ask them, do you remember using film cameras? loading film, dust and scratches on the negatives, waiting a week for prints.Using nasty chemicals if you were brave enough to develop photos in your own darkroom. Well do you know anyone using film now? Which would you say is better digital or analogue?
This is what the change to electric cars is going to be like. There will be no need to justify the technology on any ideological grounds, people will use them just because they are better. Better mileage better performance better safety.  That change is happening right now, and it's going to be great.
 Audi's Etron